Newsman comments

I have sympathy with the confederation and the goals that it works toward. That being said, I think the organization needs to step back for a moment and recognize what just occurred. A sitting U.S. president brought the world's attention back to Hiroshima and the legacy of the bomb that Hiroshima carries for the world. Obama didn't have to go to Hiroshima, didn't have to give an address, didn't have to meet survivors. Yet he did all of those things and did so with grace and dignity. Maybe he didn't say or do everything some people expected, but they got far, far more than they had any right to expect or any reason to hope for. And hopefully the objectors will realize that sooner rather than later.

Also, a good dictionary would have pointed out that electrocute can only mean "death by electricity." Anyone who touched a live electric wire and lived to tell the tale was not electrocuted but merely shocked.

If the girls were one year old, that most likely means the mother's maternity leave was coming to an end. This is more supposition piling on top of speculation here, but one could imagine a number of scenarios in that situation: overpriced or inadequate child care options, or even (my guess) an inability to square the schedule of a police officer with day care options. Most likely there will be no follow-up to this story, and we will just be left with the unsettling feeling that something is wrong and no one will ever be given enough clues on how to fix things in the future for other people faced with similar problems.

Well, as someone who has spent some time covering a MLB team ... if the signing of Dice-K proves to be anything more substantial than a PR stunt by the Hawks, I'll be surprised. Remember, it wasn't just the $52 million the Red Sox paid Matsuzaka -- the team also had to fork over $51 million (actually $51,111,111.11) to have the right to negotiate with him. So the Red Sox paid north of $103 million for 50 wins, or $2 million+ per win. He's strictly a reclamation project at this point in his career. He's lucky now if his fastball tops 135 km/hr. He had awful training habits; he apparently lifted his weights 350 ml at a time. He was spectacularly uncoachable and seemingly went to a full count on every batter, irking his teammates and coaches no end. Like a lot of great pitchers in Japanese history, he went through his best years early. He'll sell some tickets, but that's it.

Yubaru: Exactly. I wish some local folks down in Satsumasendai could get together and make some noise for a town-wide referendum on the matter. If nothing else, it would have their opinions on the record.

Unfortunately, private citizens are unable to hold others criminally negligent, so filing a civil suit is the only option they have to seek justice. I applaud this man for going forward when the pressure against him from others was powerful.

There are days you think Japanese politicians can't surprise you any more with their stupidity ... and then they do.

What in the world is this man thinking now? First of all, back when there were only 16 teams the U.S. population in 1960 was 179 million; today, with 30 teams it's 317 million people. Where is Japan's equivalent population growth over the same period? Plus, regional centers like Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, San Diego, etc., were growing and could support new teams; they weren't shrinking like Japan's hinterlands. Plus, the major leagues expanded to another country when they put teams in Montreal and Toronto -- is that going to happen here? PLUS, the major leagues could draw from a talent base that included players from the Caribbean, Central and South America, and now Asia and Oceania. Does Abe also intend to allow Japanese teams to field as many foreigners as they like, or are there still going to be caps on how many non-Japanese can be on the team at one time?

Good Lord, who says it's only the ladies? My wife and I both worked, and I was the one who took our daughter to the day care on my way to work (my wife would pick her up on her way home.) It was a struggle getting on the train every morning, and that was with every nearby passenger being considerate almost every time. I don't know what it would have been like otherwise if I'd had to deal with the author of this "article," or some other like-minded people. Trying to get onto a train during the humidity of rainy season with my daughter riding in her stroller while carrying a bag full of her clothes and day care supplies, my own work bag, an umbrella, and my suit jacket folded on top of the stroller to keep me from sweating even more was hard, but I did it. But there's no way I, or any other parent in a similar situation, deserve to be labeled a "hog." I'm not moving a vending machine onto a rush hour train -- I'm taking my child, who is traveling the way she is because she needs to. And I'm traveling when I am, and going where I am, because I have to. Anyone who would have a problem with any of that can go

Could the issues dividing a private utility and the public good be any clearer? Of course no company wants to be in charge of a disaster. No company makes money off of a crisis of this proportion. Yet TEPCO was stunningly allowed to mismanage Fukushima for more than a year after the meltdown. Time and again they dragged their feet every time they had an opportunity to make things better. Why? Because what was in the public interest was never in TEPCO's interest. The simple fact that no one in government understood this very elementary issue -- and that no one had the stones to confront TEPCO regarding a public health and environmental emergency -- speaks volumes about an utter inability on the part of the government to DO THE RIGHT THING.

More information would indeed be welcome. We don't know whether it is two or 20 children a year who die in childcare; we don't know if it is because staff are not trained to deal with children with special needs, or food allergies, or poor playground equipment, or simple accidents, or vindictive staff. I have noticed, however, that some day cares are not unlike private universities in Japan in the sense that the head of the school (the president or head teacher) runs the place like a personal fiefdom, and all of the other employees are too cowed to challenge the leader's authority. Certainly not a good recipe when there are some tyrannical day care owners out there!

To the Shukan Post writer: You're not paying attention. The Washington Post was personally purchased by Jeff Bezos and not by Amazon.com. Also, the $250 million that Bezos paid is 1 percent of Bezos' net worth (roughly $25 billion) and not the net worth of Amazon.com.

This is an error of such colossal magnitude -- it's almost as if the Shukan Post reported that, since the U.S. is a republic, Obama must be the leader of the Republican Party. And yet this simple, easily avoidable error (for starters, you could have tried reading the Washington Post for the correct information) leads you to write copious amounts of speculative drivel.

I particularly love your unnamed source who in one sentence says that Bezos' restructuring is part of a worldwide phenomenon, and then in the next breath says Bezos will be visiting Japan soon. Most times, sources want to remain unnamed because their comments are controversial. Considering how mild these comments are, is it possible you did not name your source because you didn't want your source to correct you by saying, "Hey, the only reason I said Bezos would be visiting Japan soon is because the Shukan Post asked me if Bezos wouldn't mind trying a hot spring in Japan"?

That's just rank speculation, of course -- I haven't done any research to back it up. Thought you'd appreciate it, Shukan Post.

Apart from any moral issues that people want to argue about, I would simply say that Ando's decision, in a tiny, incremental way, might be beneficial for the entire country. There are too many women here who can't even conceive (pun intended) of having a baby unless they have found the perfect husband with the perfect income and the perfect life support situation. Which in turn means that they hit their mid- to late 30s and suddenly find their options for starting a family severely limited. Until more women can de-link the idea of having children from marriage, as Ando has done, you will continue to see the birthrate continue down the ski slope to the very bottom.

Unfortunately, a lot of diplomats do care about silly stuff like this. What's the difference between diplomatic events and Olympic junkets in search of the next venue? Diplomatic events don't have cute mascots greeting you in the foyer ...

No, Jeff Lee has it right: The Boeing maintenance crew unbelievably forgot to remove the tape covering the sensor, which made the sensor indicate there was a problem when there really wasn't one. It was a case of the sensor giving a false alarm; it was NOT a case where the sensor was taped up to prevent any sort of warning whatsoever.